A view of Galleries Art Fair 2023 at COEX in southern Seoul / Courtesy of Galleries Association of Korea
By Park Han-sol
As the oldest art fair in Korea, the Galleries Art Fair is gearing up for its return to full scale in early April, with hopes of serving as a barometer for gauging the country’s art market for the year ahead.
“As always, we are the first large-scale, major fair to open the year, which means that we’ll be a gauge of the Korean art market in 2024,” said Hwang Dal-seung, president of the Galleries Association of Korea, during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday. “In consideration of the current sluggish market, we have drastically reduced the participation fee for galleries.”
The five-day event, running from April 3 to 7 at COEX in southern Seoul, is joined by 156 domestic exhibitors, maintaining its record high from last year since its establishment in 1979. The event is exclusively open to some 170 homegrown dealers that are members of the association.
Among the big-name returnees are Kukje Gallery, Hakgojae Gallery, Gallery Hyundai, Johyun Gallery and PKM Gallery.
For the upcoming edition, the organizer has encouraged participating galleries to prioritize showcasing the latest works of emerging local creatives so that the fair can better highlight forward-looking contemporary Korean art and its rising stars, Hwang noted.
He emphasized the growing significance of Galleries Art Fair as an affordable platform for young galleries and creators, especially when compared to its more “high-end,” international counterpart, Kiaf Seoul. Kiaf Seoul, also hosted by the association, runs alongside Frieze Seoul in September.
“Broken Water” (2022) by Lee Sung-jae, one of the 10 artists who will be featured at the “ZOOM-IN” exhibition during the upcoming edition of Galleries Art Fair / Courtesy of Galleries Association of Korea
The “ZOOM-IN” exhibition will return for its fifth iteration with an aim to introduce Korean artists under 39.
Ten featured creatives, several with backgrounds in Eastern paintings, have been selected from a pool of 570 applicants. The top three prize recipients will be determined through a combination of on-site votes cast by visitors and judge evaluations on April 7.
Following Galleries Art Fair’s run in April, the Galleries Association of Korea is set to inaugurate another local fair in June in the Gwanggyo neighborhood of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.
The event, primarily focused on presenting a diverse range and size of mediums put forth by emerging artists, will be an even more accessible entry point for the group of younger collectors in their 30s and 40s, according to the organizer.
